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About Me

My teaching path has taken me into many different spheres of continual learning and today I still feel as excited as ever (although sometimes overwhelmed) at the learning tools that avail today’s teachers. I don’t consider myself particularly technically orientated but my enthusiasm for enhancing learning via Web 2.0 tools is driving my passion to learn more!

My teaching experience over the past twenty years or so, has been in post-compulsory education via private tertiary providers, skill centres, TAFE institutions in the arena of business education and office skills. Firstly in the UK, then Sydney, Perth and Brisbane. My teaching has included teaching shorthand (I still use my shorthand skills for note-taking) keyboarding and word processing to journalism students; preparing displaced migrants (professionals in their own country) with office/business and communication skill; providing long-term unemployed with skills to get back into the job market. Technology in the past (and still today) consisted of learning software packages such as word processing, desk top publishing, database, spreadsheet and graphics. The tools used in my early days of teaching included now antiquated manual and electric typewriters! How painful it would feel today to have to manually correct every typing error (anyone remember Tippex?) and to laboriously type a table by using specific calculations to make sure there was going to be enough spaces for the text in the boxes!

My teaching career has evolved into my current role as a special education teacher working with high school students. This is a role I love and I am passionate about all learners succeeding and reaching their potential.

My learning journey has included following teachers who have been successful and who lead the way in 21st century teaching. A big thank you is extended to all those teachers who have willingly and freely shared their experiences and inspired me to move forward with them. (A special thanks to Ann Mirtschin who has helped me greatly).

The powerful networking tools that we have available today to collaborate, share resources, find out about developments are amazing and I intend to fully exploit them! Teaching and learning today is about lifelong learning; teachers cannot remain oblivious to the fast-changing society in which we live. Technology is embraced in all aspects of our lives. We have the job of preparing students how to access the information that is ever-changing. We cannot ignore that we need to change our teaching too. Follow my journey via this blog!

The program allows you to control the computer from the keyboard, without moving your hands. Whether it’s moving the mouse, moving the cursor, scrolling, dragging, highlighting or numbers, you use your second, third and fourth fingers in their home-key positions. There are separate versions for right-handed and left-handed people. The program is useful for:

1) Improving overall efficiency (especially typing and data entry);
2) Left-handed people who are tired of using their right hand for navigation;
3) People with hand-motion pain; and
4) Server control.

Future updates will automatically download to your application. A free 11 lesson inter-active tutorial will be available shortly (in both right-hand and left-hand versions). Once it’s ready, it too will download automatically. In the meantime, self-learning tutorials are available from the home page, or click on the following for:

I found your name on “Directory of Learning Professionals on Twitter” and wanted to reach out to you. I visited your Twitter page and read through the blogs.

My name is Gomathi and I am the Market Development Manager for EnglishCafe. We are currently in beta and could use some feedback on the site. Will you help us out by giving us a quick peek or tweet? In the very near future, we will be launching a program where Tutors can make money on our site as well. I may circle back to you when that launches as well.

I recently received an e-mail from Dr Harry K Wong which included your most recent review of the book “How to be An Effective Teacher: The First Days of School” 3rd Edition. Indeed it is an excellent resource for all instructors- new and experienced, both in the classroom and for industrial trainers. As it is possible that you may find the need to direct prospective purchasers, I would like to introduce myself as I am the distributor for the Southern Pacific region for HK Wong Publications and can be contacted through my webpage at: http://www.IESupplies.com.au
There you will also find useful links to other publications as well as Dr Wong’s monthly articles- both current and archived- another valuable (and free) resource

Thank you for your comment. Unfortunately have been a bit busy of late to post as much as I would like. Great to see your site too, some familar blogs there that I also read, and some new ones to add to my list!

I’d like to let you know about Intodit, a free and flexible hosted Wiki service that allows users to drag and drop content, including text, photos, and videos with a focus on ease of use. I think readers of Learning Curve would be interested in what it can do.

Our main goal was to create something that people could use to share information in a flexible and easy way. Most of our users state that they prefer our Wiki service to others because it is user friendlier and provides the best of both a Wiki and a social networking service.

One of our users sums it up best: “With other services it’s too difficult for non-members to contribute to the conversation or just not user friendly enough. Intodit on the other hand, seems to be very simple and provides the best of both worlds.”

Despite the bulk of information online we often fail to get the specific information which is needed this post is good & contains relevant information that I was in quest of .I appreciate your efforts in preparing this post.

Hello Marie, we just released a learning app that helps users understand how the Australian Government works: Governing Australia. You can see more information here: tincollective.com.au and I thought this may be of interest, I’d be interested to hear your feedback.